As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. An option is an Information Handling System (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, global communications, etc. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As the size of networks comprised of IHSs increases, the burden of administering the devices that comprise the network of IHSs also increases. In general, a significant portion of these administrative services are currently provided remotely. In situations where remote administration is not possible, potentially as a result of an IHS malfunction, the remote administrative services that would otherwise be relied on by a user are not available. In such situations, remediation of a malfunctioning IHS may require manual administration of the malfunctioning IHS. Manual administration may delay remediation due to the relative inefficiency of this process, especially if provided via telephone.
In addition to preventing remote administration, the nature of an IHS malfunction may also limit the functionality of the malfunctioning IHS. For instance, a hard drive failure may prevent an IHS from accessing an operating system and thus prevent the IHS from booting. Such a failure effectively disables most IHSs, especially IHSs owned and managed by retail consumers. However, certain aspects of the IHS may still remain functional. For instance, certain networking interfaces that may be used to establish a peer-to-peer connection with a nearby IHS.